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Monday, January 4, 2010

Windsor plays the nationality card

USF1 Sporting Director, Peter Windsor seems to be playing up the 'nationalism card' in talking about the team. In his comments there is a lot of juxtaposing of America vs. Europe. Comparisons include: America being more industrious; not understanding the logic of European summer shutdowns; North Carolina winters vs. European ones; advantage of an American work schedule not hampered by F1 demands of the European schedule. With a team name like USF1, I guess that should be expected and Windsor does not shy away from making such comparisons; but moreover he may have some points that are in his favor as it relates directly to the sport.

In Windor's words, "we decided to base our F1 team in Charlotte because it is the epicenter of racing in the United States. This coupled with the fact that most of the technology currently in F1 is a product of the American aerospace industry makes Charlotte the perfect choice." Some examples of USF1's proximity to hi-tech racing suppliers are Crawford Composites, Raceworks, Corvid, McLaren Electronics and Windshear Windtunnel.

So saying the team has access to just as good technical resources as any team based in Europe and don't have to be bothered half the day with the F1 demands of a European based time schedule does at the very least put USF1 on equal footing. In addition, in the era of the Internet and computing, disadvantages of communication and not being up to date with what's going on is no longer a concern that might have existed 15 to 20 years ago.

With American designers and engineers and also engineers from Brawn, Renault and Red Bull on the team they certainly have on paper the talent to get some things done from this side of the pond with a distinct American favor, style and heritage. However, lets not forget they do have an European base at MotorLand Argon in Spain, a country that is the testing hub for Formula One.